With Friends Like These
by mitsuki9911
Summary: All Claudia wanted was a normal summer with her family, what she got instead was a empty house and an annoying big black dog. A dog that can turn into an escaped convict who may or may not be guilty. On Hiatus
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 **

**OKAY! My new story!  
**

**This is my first time stepping in the Harry Potter fandom, so be nice okay?  
**

**This story was inspired by a long mental conversation I had with myself (Please ignore how crazy that sounds), about how I thought it was unrealistic for Sirius to want to be in a relationship with somebody after being in prison for 12 years. I think it's kind of unrealistic because I highly doubt he was mentally capable of handling the stress of a romantic relationship after his long years in prison. **

**Nothing against those who write stories like that though, because some of them are very good! But it's just my thoughts, and I decided to write this story because of it.  
**

**By the way, this is gonna be a Sirius/OC story, but not in a romantic way! Just in a friend way.  
**

**Right well, on with the story!  
**

**I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY OC'S! I DON'T EVEN OWN THEIR NAMES!  
**

* * *

"You're kidding me!"

"Claudia…" her father tried, but was angrily cut off.

"You're joking, you have to be joking!" Claudia Warren seethed. "Summer Vacation just started, and now you're _leaving_? What the hell, Dad?"

Stuart Warren, aged 41, liked to think of himself as brave, but even he was slightly wary of his daughter's fierce, blue-eyed glare. "Sweetheart," he said carefully "I have to, it's my job."

Claudia snorted loudly "You _had _too?"

Stuart nodded "I'm a brain surgeon Claudia, there aren't that many of us out there. They asked me to help out some of the more inexperienced surgeons because I have lots of experience." He explained. "It was a job opportunity I couldn't refuse."

"So, what? You're just going to abandon me all summer?" said Claudia, throwing her hands up.

Stuart sighed loudly "Stop being dramatic, your brother will be here."

Claudia glared at him "You know as well as I do that the only reason Russell's home right now is to sleep off his hangover!"

"He just graduated from High School, he's enjoying being nineteen and free."

"I'm fourteen Dad, I can't be home alone for two months!" Claudia yelled.

Stuart sighed again "I'll make sure Susan watches you."

Claudia crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow "Oh, really?"

Stuart eyed his daughter's angry pose with something akin to fascination. _God, she looks so much like her mother. _"Is that a problem?"

Claudia scoffed and looked to the side. "You mean _other_ than the fact that Mrs. Hawtrey is going on vacation tomorrow? Yesterday she came by to ask me to water her plants, feed her cat and gather her mail." She looked back at her dad. "But other than _that_, no, not a problem."

Stuart blinked "Damn."

Claudia plastered a smug smile on her face and made a small sound of agreement "Now what?"

Stuart ran a hand across his face "Fine! When Russell wakes up, tell him it's his job to watch you this summer, okay?"

Claudia rolled her eyes, leaning back on her left leg "That'll make Russell's summer."

Stuart scowled at his daughter "Russell can learn to deal with it!" he snapped.

Claudia held her hands out in front of her. "Okay! No need to get all huffy!"

Stuart snorted loudly "Right. Well, if you'll excuse me _Princess_," he said sarcastically "I have to go pack now."

Claudia huffed loudly at the nickname and stalked out of the room, intent on sulking in her bedroom.

She climbed up the stairs moodily, annoyance practically oozing off of her, only stopping when she saw the door to Russell's cave of a room opening. Claudia stood at the top of the stairs and watched as Russell poked his head sleepily out of his room, the smell of alcohol, puke and rotten food following him and making her choke in an effort not to gag.

"Wha…" he yawned "What's with all the yelling?"

Claudia sneered at her brother, watching him scratch his chest like a gorilla. "Congrats Big Bro." she said cheekily, brushing past him "Dad's going to America tonight, and you get the honor of watching me."

That woke Russell up "What?" he screeched.

Claudia turned around. "Yeah, just ask Daddy Dearest."

"That's fucking bullshit!" he yelled.

"Don't swear!" She yelled back, not bothering to turn around as she walked to her room and slammed the door shut.

"I'll swear if I fucking want to!" Claudia heard him shout at her door and she rolled her eyes.

She flopped down on her bed and screamed in frustration. "God, why does he even bother coming home at all? He already spends every moment possible at the hospital, and now he's going to America for two months?" Claudia turned her head so she was facing the wall, feeling like she wanted to cry.

It hadn't always been like this. Claudia could still remember when everything was still happy and cheerful, when being a family didn't feel like such a chore; but that had been when Vivian Warren was still alive. "It's been four years, shouldn't we be over you yet?" Claudia said, trying to ignore the awful burning in her eyes "But we all still miss you…Mom."

Claudia sat up and rubbed her face furiously, wiping away any wetness. "No point in crying." She said gruffly "She's dead and she's not coming back." Claudia sighed and flopped back down on the bed.

"I don't care if you don't want too!"

Claudia flinched and scrambled out of bed clumsily, accidentally tumbling down to the floor. "Ouch." She groaned. _Why's Dad yelling?_

"It's not fair Dad! She's going to ruin my summer!" Claudia heard Russell complain and she sighed loudly. That explained it, of _course _her brother was complaining.

Claudia rolled over from her position on the floor and got up, walking to the door and opening it, only to have a heart attack as her dad stormed past her door awkwardly carrying three suitcases.

Claudia watched her dad stomp down the stairs angrily, Russell trailing behind him like a duckling "Tough! Your sister needs to be watched, she can't be home alone like that!" Stuart shouted.

"But-!" Russell tried to protest.

Stuart stopped at the foot of the stairs, "No, Russell! My answer is final!" and continued down.

Russell made a frustrated noise and glared at Claudia. "This is all your fault!" he hissed, red faced "God, little sisters are so inconvenient!" then he stalked to his room and slammed the door, locking it for good measure.

Claudia mouthed the word 'asshole' at his door and turned to walk down the stairs, trying not to twitch when she heard Russell scream "I can't wait till I move to New York!"

"Trust me, I can't wait either." Claudia muttered, walking down the stairs. She reached the hallway and carefully stepped around the pile of suitcases and entered the living room.

"Dad?" Claudia asked carefully, watching her father's still body where it was laying on the couch.

"What?" Stuart moaned tiredly.

"I'm sorry I was so mean earlier."

"S'okay, Sweetie," Stuart said, holding his arms out invitingly and gesturing for Claudia to come "We were all frustrated today, I guess."

Claudia smiled and -taking the invitation- hugged her father tightly, squealing loudly when he grabbed her and pulled her on the couch with him, snuggling like they used too when she was younger.

Claudia hummed happily, closing her eyes and breathing in the familiar scent of her dad. A mix of medicine, cologne, sweat and another subtle scent that triggered a feeling of happiness and safety, a smell that was simply 'Dad' to Claudia.

"I love you, Daddy" She said quietly.

"Me too, Sweetie." Stuart said, softly stroking Claudia's long brown hair.

_Then why do you never say it? _Claudia sighed and buried her face in her father's strong arms, closing her eyes.

The next thing Claudia knew, the doorbell was ringing persistently, snapping her out of her power nap. "Guh…!" She mumbled groggily, attempting to shake her head awake. "Whoz at door?"

"It's my taxi." Claudia heard Stuart say.

She yawned loudly "Why…why do you need a taxi?"

She heard the sound of the front door opening and some hushed talking before her father answered her question. "Because Sweetie, I have to go."

She blinked sleepily and looked at the blurry form of her father. "Go? Go where?"

Stuart walked to Claudia and kissed her forehead "To America, remember?"

"Oh." She blinked "Oh! Right! Sorry, my brain wasn't on yet." Claudia stretched and got off the couch to hug her dad "Bye-bye."

Stuart hugged Claudia back tightly "I won't be gone _that _long." He said "I'll be back before you know it, the time will fly, you'll see."

"Right." Claudia said nodding, wishing that she could believe it, wishing that it didn't feel like he was trying to avoid being part of the family.

Stuart grabbed his suitcases and handed them to the pissed off taxi driver, feeling awkward because Claudia was still staring at him sadly. He shouted a loud goodbye to Russell –as he was still sulking in his room- and scurried out of the house, avoiding his daughters blue eyes that once belonged to his wife.

* * *

Russell Warren was pissed.

No, that's not the right word. Pissed was not nearly good enough to describe how mad he was. Russell Warren was infuriated.

Why did he have to watch his sister? It wasn't fair! He was supposed to be having fun with his friends, but now he had to babysit his sister, for free!

Dad _knew_ that they had an awful relationship! Dad _knew _they could barely tolerate each other!

So why did he have to watch his sister?

He really couldn't wait till he moved to New York.

Why did he have to sacrifice his summer, just because his dad got a job opportunity?

"You know what? Fuck this!" Russell exclaimed "I'm not doing it, she can watch herself! She's fourteen, that's old enough!"

Russell stalked over to his closet and grabbed his large black duffel bag –which he still had from his brief dream of being a hockey star- and shoved a pile of clothes and all his money in it. "If Dad's not going to be here, why should I?"

Russell kicked over a chair. "If he thinks he can just pretend he doesn't have a family, why can't I?"

Russell threw open his door, dragging his duffel bag carelessly behind him, and stomped down the stairs.

When Russell reached the bottom of the stairs he heard Claudia utter a startled "What the hell?" from the living room, he chucked his bag at the front door and turned, walking into the living room.

"I'm leaving." Russell said, looking at Claudia.

Claudia glared at him. "I kind of figured that out for myself, thank you."

Russell sucked in a deep breath, trying to reign in the desire to strangle his sister. "Right, well, try not to die while I'm gone."

Russell turned back to the hallway, intent on reaching the door so he could leave, when Claudia rushed up behind him. "Why do you hate me?" Russell heard her ask quietly.

Russell turned to his little sister and sneered "You hate me too. After all, you're always being a bitch to me." He spat.

Claudia stepped back, clearly surprised by the sudden hostility, but stood her ground and snapped back. "I'm only a bitch to you, because you're always acting like an asshole to me!"

"I act like that because I can't stand to look at you!" Russell blurted out.

Claudia blinked, her face morphing from angry to shocked. "What?"

_Fuck_. Russell shook his head. "You." He said "Look exactly like Mom."

"Yes, I know that. What's your point?" Claudia spat.

"My point is; you were ten when Mom died, I was fifteen. That's five more years of good memories then you have."

Claudia scowled at Russell. "So what, you're saying that just because you're older, you miss Mom more?"

"No! I'm saying that since you're a goddamn carbon copy of Mom, it hurts to look at you!" Russell shouted.

"T-that's not my fault!" Claudia cried "It's not like I asked to look like Mom!"

Russell sighed. "I know it's not your fault." He rubbed a hand through his hair "But that doesn't make it hurt less."

Claudia stared at Russell for a few seconds, an unreadable expression on her face, before looking to the side, blinking rapidly. "That's probably why Dad hates being at home." She said, making a funny noise – a cross between a laugh and a sob- "He probably can't stand to look at me either."

"That's not true!" Russell insisted "Dad loves you!"

"Yes," Claudia agreed, looking at him "But he loved Mom more."

"I…" Russell didn't know what to say.

"You should go." Claudia told him suddenly, looking away again.

"I…what?"

"You were leaving right? Go!" Claudia insisted. "Go, Russell!" Claudia shouted, waving a hand at him threateningly.

Russell backed up warily. "Claudia…"

"Go, get out of here! GO!" shouted Claudia.

Russell grimaced and backed quickly out of the room, picking up his duffel bag and slinging it on his shoulder. He took one last look at his sister's angry-but-sad face and left the house, flinching when he heard the door slam behind him.

* * *

As soon as Russell left the house, Claudia rushed forwards and kicked the door shut. "Dammit!" she cursed "Damn! Dammit! Fuck! Shit!"

Claudia angrily walked into the kitchen and kicked over a chair, grabbing her hair and tugging it while screaming in frustration. Claudia had never felt so angry and betrayed in her life, how could her so-called family do this? How could they just leave her like this? She was so mad she felt like she could explode!

Of course that was when the kitchen light decided to flicker and die.

"God damn-! Stupid light…" She groaned, letting herself collapse on her knees and fall forwards, resting her head on the cool floor. _I'm not going to cry! I'm not going to cry! _Biting her bottom lip to keep from crying, Claudia closed her eyes and took long deep breaths. _I hate being a girl sometimes…we're so emotional!_

After several moments Claudia cautiously sat up –as the danger of crying was now gone- and sniffed loudly to clear her nose. "I should go check Mrs. Hawtrey's house…" she said tiredly. She stood up, brushing off her shirt and pants. "Okay! Where did I put her house keys?"

After locating and grabbing the keys, Claudia quickly ran across the street and down three houses, now standing in front of the Hawtrey House.

Claudia liked Mrs. Hawtrey. She was a very kind lady and she told awesome stories. The only problem most people seemed to have with her was the fact that Mrs. Hawtrey was very…odd.

For one, Mrs. Hawtrey was living in a house that was supposed to be condemned, but Claudia herself knew for a fact that the house was in perfect shape. Second, she was very old fashioned. Maybe it was just her age, but most people at least had a phone! And she was always wearing such odd clothes, most of which looked like they came from a black-and-white movie. Third, she was just…strange, to say the least. She had lots of weird habits, she talked funny, and she had odd things in her house.

Claudia could still remember how all the neighborhood kids and made fun of her and called her a witch, and when Claudia told Mrs. Hawtrey, all she did was laugh and say "Oh, but I am a Witch, dear."

Regardless, Claudia still liked Mrs. Hawtrey.

Although, a big motivator for Claudia was that Mrs. Hawtrey and her Mom had grown up together, even if Mrs. Hawtrey was ten years older. Seeing as her Mom was the only one to have a British accent in Claudia's family, Mrs. Hawtrey's accent was comforting to her.

Besides, Claudia just liked being around Mrs. Hawtrey. She couldn't explain it, but she just felt calm and happy when she was around her or in her house, which is why Claudia had no problem house-sitting for her.

Shaking her head to stop her musing, Claudia quickly opened the gate to Mrs. Hawtrey's house and closed it behind her, walking up the path to the front door.

Claudia had taken out the keys to the house and was about to unlock the door when she heard a soft noise. She blinked and looked around, searching for the noise and nearly screamed when she saw a fluffy brown thing.

It was an owl, a freaking owl was perched on Mrs. Hawtrey's fence staring at her.

The owl cooed softly and turned it's head sideways, launching itself off the fence and flying towards Claudia.

"Holy-!" Claudia yelped, backing away from the owl as it flew towards her determinedly. She ducked her head and closed her eyes. _Don't kill me, please don't kill me! _

Claudia heard something flutter and drop softly on her head. She cautiously opened her eyes and grabbed the thing on her head. It was a...letter? Why would an owl have a letter? Claudia flipped it over and read the name on the front: **SUSAN HAWTREY**.

"Why would an owl have a letter?" Claudia asked, feeling completely confused.

Claudia was snapped momentarily out of her confusion by an owl dive bombing her head. "Ah!" She shrieked "What the hell?" She stumbled backwards and fell on her butt.

Now that she was on the ground, she could clearly see that Mrs. Hawtrey's house had owl's all around it, and they all had letters! "What is this? Did you all raid her mailbox or something?!" A few more owls dive-bombed her, causing her to duck and shriek loudly, not noticing them all dropping the letters in front of her.

One the various owl noises had stopped, she carefully opened her eyes and her jaw dropped. There was a pile of letters in front of her! Claudia picked all of them up, checking who they were addressed to and feeling more confused as they were all addressed to Mrs. Hawtrey. "Why would a bunch of owls steal her mail? Why did they give it back?" Claudia asked, feeling like she was missing something "Why were they even out at this time, it's not even dark yet!"

Claudia heard a weird huffing sound and she scrambled to her feet, afraid the owls from hell had returned. Looking around wildly, she started when she saw a dog looking at her from the other side of Mrs. Hawtrey's fence.

The dog might be gigantic, but it was obviously in poor shape. Its fur was shabby and unclean and she could see the outline of it's ribs through its thick black fur. "Puppy?" She said, feeling even more confused. _What's with all these animals showing up today?_

The dog made the funny huffing sound again and Claudia glared at it, feeling like she was being laughed at. "What? You think its funny being attacked by psycho owls?" She asked the dog sourly, not caring that it was a slightly crazy thing to do.

The dog huffed it's little laugh again and trotted away back to where it came from, making Claudia blow air out her nose loudly in annoyance. "Weird ass dog!" she muttered.

Claudia sighed loudly and picked up the letters she had forgotten on the ground, stomping up Mrs. Hawtrey's front steps and unlocking her front door. Claudia quickly entered the house before she could encounter any more strange animals and slammed the door shut.

* * *

**So how was it? ****Was it okay? Should I give up writing it?  
**

**Please review with your thoughts! Especially with anything that needs to be fixed! (You don't need to though, but it would make me happy! :D)  
**

**By the way, does anybody know how to get a Beta?  
**

**OH, If anyone thinks it's unrealistic for a 14 year old to be left home alone like that, one of my friends has this happen to her all the time! Its not common, (At least I think/hope it's not) but it definitely happens! Besides, it _is_ fanfiction!  
**

**~mitsuki9911~  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Okay, to everyone who is new: WELCOME**

**To everyone who is returning: WELCOME BACK!**

**I hope you enjoy this new chapter!**

**Heh, I actually forgot that Mrs. Hawtrey was supposed to leave the day after Claudia's father left, oops! **

**So I wrote it in the story! Heh Heh! **

**OH! And if anybody is wondering, I have absolutely no schedule for updates, they will come when they come! **

**I will, however, try to update at ****_least_**** every two or three weeks.**

**I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY OC'S! I DON'T EVEN OWN THEIR NAMES!**

* * *

Mrs. Hawtrey's house was very interesting, but it was also weird.

Throughout the years, Claudia had seen a lot of strange things; to this day she would swear she had seen a cauldron in her house once. Mrs. Hawtrey's house was always changing, and it was full of weird artifacts.

But sometimes, Claudia couldn't help but understand why people were wary of Mrs. Hawtrey.

Even from outside, people could hear the strange noises that came from her house. They had all seen the strange flashes of light that occasionally illuminated her house.

And now, apparently, she had owls from hell in her yard.

But Claudia couldn't help but love it, it was all so fascinating!

If Claudia had to pick the strangest thing about Mrs. Hawtrey's house though, it would be a tie between the pictures and the fireplace.

Her pictures because, well, she had none. No portraits, no photographs, no simple paintings, nothing.

Which Claudia could understand, some people didn't like paintings, and she herself wasn't all that fond of getting her picture taken; but the odd thing was, the walls looked like there should be pictures. There were rectangular, oval and square patches of darker colored wall all over the house, like paintings and pictures should be there, but they were taken away.

Maybe Mrs. Hawtrey just didn't like how she looked in her photos, or maybe she was hiding something. Either way, Claudia figured that they must be in Mrs. Hawtrey's bedroom, because it was always locked and it was the one room in the house she was forbidden from entering.

Her fireplace was tied with the pictures because it was so abnormal. It was huge! Claudia simply could not understand why someone would need a fireplace large enough for three people to fit in comfortably, or why it would need to be tall enough for her father to stand in without ducking. Not to mention, there was that one time Claudia thought she had seen green fire coming out of it.

Yes, there was definitely something fishy about Mrs. Hawtrey's house, but Claudia didn't mind. While she was curious, she didn't want to pry in business that wasn't hers.

"Okay." Claudia said at last, finished taking a careful glance around the empty house "Mrs. Hawtrey said that there should be a large box on the kitchen table for the mail..."

She walked through the familiar house, turning on lights as she went, and stepped into the kitchen, spotting the large box on the table immediately. "Aha! So this would be the mailbox, then."

Claudia stepped towards the box, placing the pile of letters on the table and examining the box. It wasn't too heavy when she picked it up, but it did have weird symbols engraved on the sides of the box. Claudia brushed one of the symbols with the tip of her fingers. _I wonder if they mean something, or if they're just random designs._

Shrugging Claudia put the box down and picked up the letters, placing them in the thin slot on the top of the box and hearing them hit the bottom. _Why would she want her mail in a random box though?_

Claudia was startled out of her thoughts by a soft meow. Spinning around quickly with a large smile on her face, she looked down to see Mrs. Hawtrey's beautiful green-eyed, white cat.

"Ducky!" Claudia said happily, reaching down to stroke her soft fur, making Ducky purr loudly.

Ducky's unusual name had actually come from Claudia. An embarrassing name that a one-year-old Claudia had bestowed upon the cat. According to Mrs. Hawtrey, Claudia had taken one look at the small kitten and shouted "Ducky!" and refused to call her anything else, so Mrs. Hawtrey decided to keep the name, which embarrassed Claudia greatly.

"How are you doing, Sweetie?" Claudia asked Ducky softly, squatting so she could pet her more effectively. Ducky purred louder and bumped her head on Claudia's chin in answer, making her giggle. "I guess you're fine then, huh?"

Ducky reached up and batted a chunk of Claudia's hair that had fallen over her shoulder. "Ahh, you're bored then, we should fix that!" Claudia said, standing up and moving to the hallway out of the kitchen. While she was leaving, Claudia missed the box glowing golden for a few seconds, before fading back to its normal state.

"Where's your mouse, Ducky? Can you get it?"

Ducky made a funny noise and shot out of the kitchen and sprinted up the stairs. Claudia giggled a bit when she heard Ducky scrambling around upstairs, before she ran back downstairs holding a purple mouse proudly in her mouth.

"Good girl!" Claudia praised, and Ducky dropped it and looked at Claudia expectantly.

"What? You can find it and bring it down, but you can't give it to me?" Claudia asked, snorting in amusement.

Sighing dramatically, Claudia walked forwards and grabbed the toy, moving to her hands and knees and placing the toy on the ground, smiling as Ducky came forwards excitedly, knowing what was about to happen.

Claudia squeezed the toy mouse and moved it side to side rapidly, watching as Ducky's pupils dilated and her head moved, following the toy as the hunting instinct took over.

Claudia quickly raised the toy and chucked it down the hallway yelling "Get it!", and watched as Ducky skidded across the floor as her claws tried to find the traction needed to run after the toy.

Claudia laughed softly at Ducky's excitement, making a face when Ducky narrowly missed slamming into a wall, and let her play with the toy.

"Claudia?"

Shrieking loudly, Claudia whirled around on the ground in shock, starting slightly when she saw who spoke. "Mrs. Hawtrey?"

"Claudia, why are you here? I'm not leaving till tomorrow!" Mrs. Hawtrey said, her kind blue-grey eyes lighting up with amusement.

Blushing furiously, Claudia cursed loudly in her head. "Crap! Sorry, I got confused!"

Mrs. Hawtrey laughed softly and patted Claudia reassuringly on the back. "It's okay, dear. I don't mind. Besides, now I get a chance to explain a few things you should know while I'm gone."

Claudia nodded. "Okay." She stood up and straightened her clothes. "By the way, are you aware that you have crazy owls flying around your house?"

Mrs. Hawtrey gave Claudia a funny look. "What?"

"On the way here," Claudia explained. "I was attacked by psycho owls, and they were carrying all your mail."

Mrs. Hawtrey blinked. "Well, that's odd." She waved her hand dismissively. "You shouldn't worry about it though; I doubt it'll happen again."

Claudia sighed. "Yeah, I guess not. Though it was weird that it happened at all…"

"Well," Mrs. Hawtrey said, clapping her hands. "Time to show you what you'll be doing while I'm away; I planned on writing a note, but since you're here…" She shrugged, gesturing for Claudia to follow her into the kitchen. "You'll need to feed Ducky every day, once a day. All you have to do is give her two scoops of food and she'll be fine." Mrs. Hawtrey explained.

Claudia nodded. "And her food is still being stored in the basement, right?"

Mrs. Hawtrey beamed at Claudia. "Good! You remembered!" She gestured for Claudia to follow her again, this time taking her to the living room. "And the other thing you'll be doing is watering my plants."

Claudia blinked and looked at the various flowers, leafy plants and cacti Mrs. Hawtrey had around the living room. "Uh...is there a system to watering them, or do I just water them daily?"

Mrs. Hawtrey huffed out a small laugh. "Not really, just check the soil in all of the pots to see if it needs watering. If you stick your finger in the soil down to the second knuckle and it's dry, the plant needs to be watered." she explained.

Claudia nodded. "Okay, that's simple enough. How much water do I use?"

"Good question!" Mrs. Hawtrey said, and pointed to one of the dishes that rested on the bottom of the pots. "When you see water spill into the dish, you know you've watered it enough."

"Well that can't be too hard."

"You'd be surprised." Mrs. Hawtrey said "The first time I watered plants for my Mother, I wasn't paying proper attention and ended up overflowing the dish, which then flooded all over the floor."

"Oops."

"That's what I said, but that certainly didn't stop my Mother from making me clean it all up." Mrs. Hawtrey chuckled.

"So is that all then?" Claudia asked.

Mrs. Hawtrey was silent for a few seconds. "I believe so. At least, I can't think of anything else. You just need to feed Ducky, water the plants and gather the mail."

"Well, I can definitely do that."

"Good, good!" Mrs. Hawtrey praised. "Well, its getting late, you should probably go home, you wouldn't want your father to get worried!"

_She doesn't know he's gone? Oops. _Claudia forced herself to smile. "Right! I'll be going then!" She walked to the front door, hearing Mrs. Hawtrey follow behind her. "Oh! Can I have a loaf of bread or something? It would be helpful in case I need to distract the crazy owls."

Mrs. Hawtrey gave Claudia a strange look. "Well I do have a loaf of bread that needs to be eaten soon..."

Claudia pulled out the puppy-dog eyes, "Can I have it? _Please!" _and clasped her hands together like she was praying.

Mrs. Hawtrey sighed and rolled her eyes. "I suppose so."

Claudia cheered. "Yes!"

Claudia waited as Mrs. Hawtrey went to her kitchen and brought back a large loaf of bread, which Claudia took and awkwardly held in one hand. "Okay, I'm leaving now."

Claudia waved her goodbye with the hand that wasn't holding a loaf of bread and left the house, hearing the door close and lock behind her.

Once Claudia was outside, she nervously stood on the front steps, wary of being attacked by the owls.

She cautiously stepped forwards and checked around the house. _Looks like they're gone._

Claudia took two careful steps down so she was on the cement path instead of the front steps, and then proceeded to sprint to the gate. She clung to the bread like it was a lifeline, not particularly caring that she probably looked a little insane.

When Claudia reached the gate, she decided that, instead of opening it like a normal person, she would hop over it instead. When Claudia tried, however, her shirt got stuck on a part of the gate and she was forced to flail stupidly for a few seconds, until it finally ripped.

To add to Claudia's embarrassment, when her shirt ripped, she face-planted on the ground while the rest of her body flopped down in an unattractive manner. "Ouch."

Claudia's embarrassment quickly turned to irritation when she heard the huffing noise once again. Claudia pushed up off the ground and glared at the filthy, starving dog. "Come to laugh at my misfortune again?"

But the dog wasn't looking at Claudia anymore. it was looking down at something that was in front of her.

Confused, Claudia looked down and immediately understood what the dog was so fascinated by. It was looking at the loaf of bread she had dropped during her mild freak out while she was stuck on the gate.

"You're really hungry, huh?" Claudia said, gently picking up the bread, flinching slightly when the dog made a loud whine of protest.

Claudia brushed some dirt off the bread. "My dad used to have a dog." She said, smiling softly. "He was really old, he died when I was five, but I can still remember feeding him my peanut butter sandwiches."

Claudia looked back at the dog, who was staring at her with a strange expression on its face. _I have a feeling you're really intelligent. _

Claudia held the bread out to the dog. "It's not the best thing to give you, but food is food, right?"

The dogs grey eyes flicked from Claudia to the bread rapidly, before it carefully stepped forwards, watching Claudia intently, and sunk its teeth in the bread and jerked it out of Claudia's hand.

Claudia laughed slightly at the dog's cautiousness. "I promise you can have it, I won't take it from you."

The dog made a muffled sound and backed up a bit, before turning around and sprinting away.

"I'll take that as a thank you then..." Claudia said, standing up and slapping dirt off her clothes.

Claudia looked back to where the dog had ran off to. "I should go home. I'll worry about the dog later."

Sighing, she dragged herself back to her very empty house.

Claudia went to her room and pulled off the ripped shirt, throwing it away and pulling on a blue pajama shirt.

Then Claudia went back downstairs and opened the fridge, looking over its many contents and sighing when nothing looked particularly appealing. She closed the fridge door and leaned against it. "I'm hungry, but I'm not..."

Sighing again, Claudia decided she might as well go to bed. She slowly went back upstairs and collapsed on her bed, feeling completely drained.

"Goodnight, Empty House."

* * *

Sirius Black was not amused.

It's not like this whole mess was _his_fault.

All he had wanted to do was go somewhere where he could relax!

Sirius had already made sure he had been sighted somewhere far away from Hogwarts so they would get rid of the Dementor protection. Now all he wanted to do was relax and recuperate.

Sirius had planned to go somewhere hot, so he could relax on a beach, so he could forget the awful cold that came with being around Dementors for a while.

He wanted to go somewhere in the U.S., like Hawaii or California. He had even told Buckbeak his plans, and told Buckbeak where to go, but then he had fallen asleep while they were flying, and woken up in Canada of all places.

Okay, so maybe it was his fault.

But he still didn't want to be in Canada!

Worst of all, Buckbeak was refusing to leave! The stupid, stubborn animal decided it liked it here, and refused to fly away.

Why did Buckbeak even want to be here? Was it because they were in a large area of trees?

Thank god they had found a cave to hide in!

It still sucked though.

Sirius was extremely lucky he ended up in an area that had a witch nearby. Thankfully, it wasn't somebody he recognized, though he was surprised when he found out the Old Hag was British.

He had already checked out her house and, as luck would have it, she was leaving soon. The only thing he would have to worry about was the brat the Old Lady was making watch her house.

Why did she even need the girl to watch the house, she was magical wasn't she? Couldn't the Old Lady charm things to do the work?

He really didn't get it.

But at least he had found a way to contact Harry. He could use Hedwig, of course, but he could also use the owls that delivered the Old Lady's mail. And if he was really desperate, he could use the Old Lady's fireplace.

That girl the Old Lady was making watch her house was strange though.

Earlier today he had seen what must have been the girl's father leave with a bunch of suitcases, then later, another man had left with a bag as well.

And so far, he hadn't seen any sign of the girls mother.

Was this normal for muggles? Did they normally leave their children home alone like this? And based on the amount of suitcases the father had, he would be gone for a while.

He almost felt sorry for the girl, he knew how painful it could be to feel completely alone. But it wasn't his problem, the girl would have to solve it on her own.

And then, this afternoon he decided to watch the Old Lady's house. He wanted to gather information, and so far it was paying off. Since the Old Lady was leaving tomorrow, as long as he avoided the girl, he could contact Harry without the fear of being caught.

Though the best part of today had to have been when he watched the girl get attacked by the Post Owls. Sirius hadn't seen anything that amusing in a long time, and the girl had provided even more entertainment when she tried to hop over the gate but got stuck!

But he did feel a little bad for her, especially now.

How many people had stopped and seen how filthy his fur was, how thin he was, and still walked away? And yet it was a child who ended up being the only one compassionate enough to give him food, everybody else had yelled and shooed him away.

Sirius was extremely thankful. So far, Buckbeak had been able to hunt his own food, but Sirius wasn't used to hunting and the fact that he was already weak and starving wasn't helping much. So the girl giving him a loaf of bread was a very big deal, seeing as without it he wouldn't be alive much longer.

He almost felt bad about laughing at her earlier.

Keyword being almost.

In the end, he was a Marauder, funny things would always be funny. He refused to feel bad about laughing, especially when he'd spent twelve years in a place where feeling happy was impossible.

The girl really was curious though.

How many people would talk to a -seemingly- normal animal like it was just another person? The girl acted like she thought a simple dog would be able to understand, not many people were like that.

It was a strange but refreshing change from most peoples attitudes towards animals, which usually involved yelling or high pitched voices.

He definitely preferred the girls way.

And now, thanks to the girl, he might actually live long enough to catch Peter.

But now he had a new problem.

He didn't owe the girl a life debt; seeing as she didn't save him from dying. It was more like she prevented him from getting to the point of dying, but now he felt like he had to help her somehow. He just didn't know how he was going to do that.

Sirius Black was one of the Marauders though, he would find a way.

Not to mention, he had to find a way to help her without her finding out. After all, it's not like he could let himself be caught doing un-doglike things.

But for now, he would eat his loaf of bread and think about it later. It had been far too long since he had eaten properly, he was sick of eating rats and bugs.

Sirius supposed he should _try _to enjoy his freedom though.

He could hardly call being on the run from Dementors and Aurors while also chasing a stupid rat freedom, this past year had been hard on him.

Sirius laid down in his and Buckbeak's cave and picked up the loaf of bread with shaking hands.

Canada may not have been his first choice for places to go, but at least he -currently- had no reason to worry about running, he had a way to contact Harry and he could finally -sort of- relax.

Best of all, if the girl was nice enough, he might have a reliable source of food.

And maybe, just maybe, he could have a bit of a friend too.

* * *

**So, what did you think?**

**Was it good? Was it terrible? You don't have to review, but I would love it if you did!**

**I actually did not like this chapter much, for some reason it was really difficult to write.**

**Well, if you did like it: You're welcome! **

**If you didn't: So sorry!**

**~mitsuki9911~**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**SHORT CHAPTER IS SHORT!  
**

**Sorry about that, this was more like a filler chapter, as it was important to establish a relationship between Claudia and Sirius!  
**

**Next chapter (Which should be finished soon) Claudia will meet Sirius (the real Sirius) I promise!  
**

**I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING, NOT EVEN MY OC'S NAMES!  
**

* * *

Waking up the next morning was less than pleasant.

For most people, waking up is nice. Sometimes they wake up slowly, but usually with the feeling of being refreshed and rejuvenated.

Claudia however, woke up feeling more exhausted than when she fell asleep. She woke up feeling groggy and confused, like her head weighed a thousand pounds, she gurgled out a faint complaint and attempted to fall back asleep, but it proved to be impossible.

She groaned loudly and attempted to get out of bed, only to painfully fall to the floor when her legs refused to cooperate. "Ouch." She moved to her knees and shook her head, blinking hard, trying to shake the sleepiness from her head.

"Oh God, I don't want to be awake." Claudia complained, stumbling awkwardly down the stairs.

She slowly drifted sleepily into the kitchen and laid down on the floor, moaning at the refreshing coolness. "...mmn...feels nice." Claudia rested on the floor for a while, giving her brain a chance to re-boot, until her stomach finally growled hungrily.

Claudia stood up, figuring that if her body could tell her she was hungry, she was awake enough to attempt to function properly.

She grabbed some bread, yawning loudly, and popped it into the toaster. Claudia let the bread toast and burn a bit, before placing the toast on a plate and buttering it.

She sat down on the floor and munched on a corner of the toast, feeling bored and more conscience of the empty house then she was last night

Now more than ever, Claudia wished that her best friend was here.

She had other friends, of course, but they were what Claudia called 'School-Friends', which were people she would talk too at school, but not anywhere else.

Claudia tried to make other friends, but it was difficult. She had never really...fit in with most people. She always felt like she was missing something important, something that would help her relate to her peers. Every time Claudia tried to make new friends, the only thing she ended up getting out of it was new opinions about the immaturity of boys and the petty problems of the girls.  
Her only real friend she had ever made was Hunter Green.

Claudia couldn't even begin to explain why they were friends, they had just sort of drifted together, but -as her Mom would say- they best friendships were the ones that are impossible to explain.

Maybe part of the reason they had drifted together was because they were both part of their town's gossip.

Nicole Green had gotten pregnant at 16, yet had still proudly gave birth and raised Hunter all on her own, which was always a good topic for gossip. The neighborhoods always talked about how hard it must be for Nicole to raise Hunter on her own, and that Nicole was a great mother, despite her age.

Sometimes the gossip was malicious though, they would hear whispers about how irresponsible Nicole was. Hunter hated these the most, she hated being reminded that she was an accident.

Claudia was talked about because she was the child of the mother who was murdered by her own cousin. Claudia didn't like being talked about either, especially because the gossip always involved her mother, which was a sensitive topic.

Neither Hunter nor Claudia appreciated being talked about, nor did they appreciate all of their peer's questions about said gossip. They enjoyed each others company because it was a break from all the drama, and somewhere down the line, they had became good friends.

But three months before school ended, Nicole had gotten a really good job offer and they had to move. To France of all places. Both Hunter and Claudia had been furious at the idea, they had raged at Nicole for hours but it was futile, they would be moving to France.

At least Claudia could phone Hunter, as long as she took the different time zones into consideration.

Claudia still needed to solve this isolation problem, though. Surely it wasn't good to have next to no human interaction for two months? Wasn't it possible for someone to go insane from that?

Chewing on her cheek, Claudia finished her breakfast, brushed bread crumbs off of her hands and rinsed the plate off, placing it on the counter to be washed.

She walked to the front door and opened it, stepping outside and squinting at the sun's glare, and sat on the front steps. Claudia sighed contently as the morning sun warmed her skin. "That feels nice..."

Claudia closed her eyes and rested her head on her knees, swaying side to side slowly feeling slightly sleepy, like she had stepped into a warm bath.

Then, out of nowhere, a awful smell assaulted her nose, making her cringe and open her eyes, which caused her to shriek loudly as she came face to face with a large black furry thing.

"W-what the hell?" Claudia scrambled up to her feet, heaving out a relieved breath when she realized it was just the large dog from yesterday.

"Jesus, Dog. You scared me!" She said breathlessly, holding a hand over her heart.

The dog just cocked its head and wagged its tail happily.

"What? What do you want?" Claudia asked. "Don't look at me like that!"

The dog just wagged its tail faster and whined lowly, licking it's lips.

Claudia sighed loudly. "You're hungry?"

The dog barked loudly and jumped around wildly, Claudia took it as a yes.

"Fine." She huffed, and went inside.

Claudia rummaged around the fridge and cheered when she found leftovers from two days ago. She remembered that when Dad's dog was still alive, they would feed it homemade food -which was technically human food-, as she could remember her Mom scolding her when she tried to eat it.

The leftovers were ham with green beans, peas and mashed potatoes. None of it was toxic to a dog, but it wasn't the best thing to feed it.

It would have to do though.

She cut the ham into bite sized pieces and grabbed a bowl, filling it with the green beans, potatoes, peas and mixing the ham in with it.

Satisfied with the meal, Claudia picked up the bowl and went back outside, laughing when she saw the dog sprawled out on the front steps, taking up more space than it needed too. "Maybe I shouldn't feed you, you look pretty fat to me." she said.

The dog made a noise that could only be described as a disgruntled bark and stood up, giving her this look and wagging it's tail expectantly.

"Oh fine, have it." Claudia said, rolling her eyes with a smile and placing the bowl down in front of the dog, who eagerly started scarfing down the food.

"Careful! If you eat too fast you'll throw it up!"

The dog barked, and slowed down it's eating.

* * *

And so, that was how it went for a few days.

Claudia would wake up, eat, and feed the dog. Later, when she went to Mrs. Hawtrey's house, she would greet the dog, and the dog would headbutt her affectionately.

And the system worked for both of them.

Claudia couldn't help but anticipate seeing the dog everyday. She supposed it was weird to look forward to seeing a random dog, but the dog was -so far- becoming a sort of companion and friend.

But today Claudia had a mission to complete, she was going to wash the dog.

The dog's fur had steadily been getting filthier and filthier and the smell was getting worse, it needed to be washed and Claudia was going to be the one to do it.

Claudia had already pulled the inflatable kiddie-pool out of the basement -though it took many tries to get her close enough to touch it, seeing as it had spiders hiding in it-, and had filled it with water, putting it in the backyard so the sun could warm the water as much as it could.

Now she just needed to get the dog.

Claudia had already prepared a plate of food for the dog. It was filled with healthy food this time, as she had actually taken the time to research foods dogs could and couldn't eat on her Dad's computer.

Claudia opened the front door and smiled as the dog perked up and greeted her happily. "Hey Smelly!" She said. "I really need to give you a proper name..."

Claudia had just been calling the dog by whatever came to her mind at the time, so far the dog had been nicknamed Fuzzy, Furry, Stinky, Lazy, Blackie and now Smelly.

The dog barked reproachfully at her and Claudia put the food down immediately as a form of apology, which the dog gladly accepted.

Claudia watched the dog eat happily and she felt a sense of pride fill her body as she noticed that she could no longer see the dog's ribs. Claudia had done that, she had saved an animal, and it felt really good.

Sure, to most people it was just her saving a random abandoned dog, but to Claudia she had saved a friend.

Claudia shook herself out of her thoughts and noticed that the dog had finished eating. "Hey Smelly?"

The dog looked at her.

"You really need a bath."

The dog made a funny bark that seemed to give to impression of 'Hell no.'

"Yes, you need a bath. You're filthy and smelly." Claudia nodded.

She glared as the dog started to creep away. "No! If you don't let me give you a bath, I'll never feed you again!"

That shut the dog's complaints up. The dog tucked it's tail under its stomach and compiled, following Claudia to the backyard.

Claudia pointed to the kiddie-pool. "Get in the pool, please."

The dog gave her a look that quite clearly said 'no.'

Claudia looked at the dog sternly. "Get in the pool, Smelly."

The dog barked sharply.

"Now!" She ordered, pointing firmly at the pool again.

The dog glared at Claudia and awkwardly stepped in the pool, making an exasperated huffing noise.

"Oh you big baby! It's not the end of the world, it's _just_a bath!"

The dog stubbornly looked away from her.

"Fine!" She huffed and turned around, locating the hose and entering the house and hooking the hose up to the hot water tap.

Claudia grabbed a bucket and the bottle of dog shampoo she had bought yesterday and went back outside.

"Hey!" Claudia yelled. "Get back in the pool!" Apparently while she was in the house, the dog had decided to attempt to sneak away.

The dog gave her another look and creeped back into the pool, shivering at the cold water inside.

Claudia's eyes softened slightly. "Look, I know getting a bath right now isn't your cup of tea, but you really need one. Okay?"

When the dog refused to acknowledge her, Claudia sighed and turned on the hose, filling the bucket with warm water, then turned it back off and left it near the edge of the pool so she could get if if she needed too.

The first thing she did was dump the bucket of water on the dog, laughing slightly at it's yelp of surprise. "Sorry!" She laughed.

Then Claudia grabbed the shampoo and carefully washed the dogs face gently with a cloth, making sure not to hit it's eyes, mouth or nose. After that she lathered up the rest of the dog, cringing as the shampoo changed from a clean white to a murky brownish-gray.

She rinsed him off and used more shampoo, until -the now confirmed- male dog's fur was an acceptable level of clean. The dog tired to complain a lot, but Claudia knew he was enjoying getting cleaned, especially when she used her nails to scratch through his thick matted fur.

Claudia looked down at the kiddie-pool and made a face. "The water used to be sparkling clean, and now its...shitty brown." She snorted.

The dog huffed out its signature laugh and Claudia smiled at it. "See? having a bath wasn't that bad."

The dog sighed and stood up, shaking it's wet fur furiously all over Claudia, making her squawk loudly. "Hey!"

The dog huffed it's laugh again before squeaking and coughing, apparently accidentally getting water up it's nose.

"Ha! That's what you deserve for getting me all wet!" Claudia laughed victoriously, as the dog sneezed and snuffled. "Ah! I know, I'll call you Snuffles!"

The newly named Snuffles barked loudly in protest.

"No! I like it, I'm using it!"

* * *

**DONE!**

**Feel free to like or hate my story!  
**

**Again, I apologize for the depressingly short chapter!  
**

**I hope you liked it!  
**

**Review! (If you want)  
**

**~mitsuki9911~  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Hi!  
Wow, this took a while didn't it?**

**Hope the length of this chapter makes up for the fact that I got distracted by writing Glee and Walking Dead stuff?**

**ENJOY!**

**I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters, I don't even own my OC's names!**

* * *

Early Monday morning, exactly three weeks since her dad and Russell left, found Claudia angrily waking up the the telephone ringing incessantly.

Groaning loudly, Claudia untangled herself from her bed and shuffled downstairs, sleepily searching for the phone.

When she found it, she picked it up and greeted the person on the other end tiredly. "Hello?"

"_Claudia?_" She heard her fathers voice ask.

"Yes, who else... would it be?" Claudia said, yawning loudly.

"_Well, I was hoping Russell would answer._" Stuart said.

"What? Why would Russell answer?" Claudia asked, too tired to remember that her dad thought Russell was watching her.

"_What do you mean? Why wouldn't he answer?_" Her father asked sharply.

"Because he's..." She started to say, but changed the sentence when she remembered the lie. "He's...ah...he's mad at you...yeah."

"_He's mad at me?_" Stuart deadpanned. "_That seems a little childish._"

"Yeah, well. You know Russell, he can hold a grudge." Claudia said lightly, laughing awkwardly.

"_Right._"

Claudia cleared her throat. "Uh. So, why- why did you call...dad?"

"_I wanted to check up on you._" Stuart explained. "_Have you called Hunter yet?_"

Claudia blinked. "Uh. No. Actually, Hunter called me about...three days ago?" She said, biting her lip. "I think it was three days ago."

She decided not to mention how awkward that phone conversation had been. This had been the second time they had talked since Hunter had moved, and their friendship had obviously been strained by it. The conversation had mostly been Hunter gushing about how "Amazing!" France was, and Claudia repeatedly saying 'cool' and 'interesting', the rest of the conversation had been filled with bouts of awkward silence as they both figured out what to say.

"_Well, it's good that you got to talk to her, I know how much you missed her._" Stuart said.

Claudia nodded. "Yeah. Good." She said awkwardly.

"_Is Russell at home?_"

"Y-yeah." Claudia said, her voice going slightly high pitched as she lied. "He's just...he's just sleeping."

"_Still? It's pretty late for him to still be sleeping._"

"We had a late night, we were watching movies."

"_I see. Well, I'll be calling again in a few days..._"

"Okay. Bye Dad, I love you."

"_...I love you too, sweetie._"

Claudia rolled her eyes at her fathers hesitant reply and hung the phone up, sighing loudly.

"I'm never sure if you just don't want to be a parent anymore, or if you're just being a typical man who's afraid to say the L-word..." She muttered.

"Oh well," Said Claudia, shrugging and placing the phone back on it's stand. "There's nothing I can do about it."

She walked to the front door and opened it, expecting to see Snuffles waiting outside as usual.

And was shocked to find that he wasn't.

"Snuffles?" Claudia called, looking around the neighbourhood for a sign of the distinctive black dog.

When she found none, Claudia closed the door and leaned against it. "Thats odd..." She made a little distressed noise. "I hope he's okay. He's always here for breakfast..."

Claudia furrowed her eyebrows. "What if he's hurt? Or if he got caught by someone from a dog pound? Or maybe he's...d-" She broke off, unable to complete the horrifying sentence. She refused to play the What-if game.

Claudia would just go about her normal routine as if nothing had changed, it wouldn't be that hard, right? Snuffles was just a friendly dog she was sort-of friends with, it's not the end of the world if he's not there, right?

For the next two days, to Claudia's extreme distress, Snuffles failed to show up in the mornings, or at any other time. There was still no sign of him.

Until Snuffles stopped showing up every morning, Claudia had never imagined that he had become such an important part of her life, nor had she anticipated exactly how _much_ she would miss him one he was gone from it.

Claudia missed him when she opened the fridge each morning and spotted the food he would never eat.

She missed him when she saw another owl fly by Mrs. Hawtrey's house and there was no black dog chasing or snapping at it.

She missed him every time she saw the bottle of dog shampoo she had forgotten on the counter.

Claudia missed his shaggy black fur, she missed his smelly dog breath, she missed his human-like demeanor and she missed the way he'd wag his tail happily when he saw her.

To put it simply, Claudia missed her friend, and she wanted him back. The problem was, she had no idea where he was.

Was he dead? Was he in some kind of animal pound? Was he found by his owners? Was he found by new owners?

Or maybe...did he just not want to see Claudia anymore? Claudia sure missed Snuffles, but did Snuffles miss Claudia?

Was it pathetic that she hoped a dog would miss her too?

* * *

Claudia wondered how this insanity came about.

Actually, she knew how it happened. She just wasn't sure she knew how to process it.

It had all started about four hours ago.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She had woken up, checked for Snuffles, and dejectedly went through her morning routine.

She showered, had breakfast and cleaned anything that needed to be cleaned around the house.

Later, she went to Mrs. Hawtrey's house to feed Ducky, water the plants and gather the mail. Thankfully, there were no owls around the house today. She didn't mind them much anymore, but she still found them slightly creepy since they stuck around Mrs. Hawtrey's house.

It was when she decided to go shopping for some more food that it all went to hell.

She was no stranger to grocery shopping. She had done it before, mostly because her dad was always working, so he never checked the amount of food in the house. It had been Russell and herself that had been in charge of informing their dad when he needed to buy more food. Then, later, it had been their job to shop for said food.

So when she noticed that the house was running low on some essential food items, she decided to go shopping for more. Luckily, her dad had left the credit card he had gotten them to use for grocery shopping, though Russell had used it for buying alcohol a few times. Dad never checked it, thank god, just payed it off when he needed too.

As she was coming back from the store, carrying a two bags with bread, milk, and other food items, she heard a familiar bark.

She was so shocked by it she nearly dropped the bags. She grasped the slippings bags tightly and whipped her head around. "Snuffles?" she called.

She heard the bark again, from somewhere down the street and smiled excitedly.

Then, she heard Snuffles bark loudly in rapid succession and the smile slowly slipped off of her face. Those barks didn't sound right, they sounded pained and...scared?

Worried, she quickly dropped the bags, not caring that she was wasting the food she had just paid for, and ran down the street in the general location of Snuffles' barks.

She heard him bark again and she sped up to a sprint, turning down a corner and into a alley.

She stopped to catch her breath, glaring at what she saw. She had found Snuffles, except it appeared that he was being harassed by a bunch of guys. "Hey!" she called.

The three guys turned towards her and she got a little worried when she didn't recognize them.

Snuffles looked up at her and she smiled in relief, he looked alright.

They turned towards her, and she gulped as her nose detected alcohol wafting off their clothes.

The men were drunk. Fantastic.

"Leave the dog alone!" She said as fiercely as she could, trying to come off as tough.

"Fuck off, girl." One of the men, who was wearing a distinctive orange hat, slurred slightly, waving his hand dismissively.

"That's my dog, leave him alone!"

"Piss off!"

"Leave him alone!"

One of the other men, who was wearing a large black hoodie, stepped towards her angrily, but Snuffles barked loudly and jumped at him. The man stumbled back, just barely missing being bitten by an enraged Snuffles. "Fucking dog!" the man yelled, kicking Snuffles.

"Don't touch him!" she screamed, rushing forwards as Snuffles let out a pained yelp.

One of the men grabbed her, however, before she could reach Snuffles. "Hey! Let me GO!" She twisted and jerked in his arms, trying to get away.

The man holding her grinned widely. "Hey boys, look at this little thing! Think she's so tough, eh?"

She just growled something unintelligible and struggled wildly to get out of his grip. She turned her head up, glaring at him. The man just grinned at her again and she noticed that he was missing one of his front teeth.

The man with the hoodie stepped forwards and grabbed her chin roughly. "Hey, if she lives around here," he said gesturing to the neighborhood. "Doesn't that mean she's the brat of some rich bitch and bastard?"

She froze at his words and Snuffles growled.

Missing-tooth chuckled. "Maybe we should see what her parents are willing to pay to get her back?"

She started to struggled harder, furiously kicking her legs at the man who was holding her and the two other guys in the alley, but it was a fruitless effort, her legs weren't long enough to reach any of the men.

"She's got some spunk, doesn't she?" Orange-hat said.

"I like spunk, maybe we should have some fun with her first." Said Hoodie.

Snuffles growled loudly again, rushing at the man who had spoken.

"Shut up you stupid mutt!" Hoodie yelled, kicking Snuffles down, and kicking him some more till Snuffles stopped moving.

"Leave him alone!" She screamed.

"Thats gross, man. This girl's like... twelve!" Missing-tooth said, shooting Hoodie a disgusted look and ignoring her completely.

"I was just kidding!" Hoodie protested half-heartedly.

"Sure, whatever." Orange-hat said, disbelievingly. "That's disgusting man, I didn't know you liked that sort of shit!"

"I don't!"

"COULD YOU LET ME GO NOW?" She yelled, her teenage temperament getting the better of her.

Missing-tooth looked down at her in shock, as if he had forgotten she was there. "Whoa, little lady has some serious lungs."

"Let me go." She repeated and Snuffles growled in agreement. Her eyes flicked over to look at Snuffles, happy to see him recovered enough from the abuse to stand up.

"No. We might be able to get some money off of you." Orange-hat said.

"What?" she asked, panic filling her voice. "N-no! You can't, there's nobody home!"

As soon as she blurted it out, she wished she could take it back. She couldn't believe she had told them that she was home alone! She felt like slapping herself.

"Oh?" Missing-tooth said, and she scowled at the smile she could hear in his voice. "Well, maybe we should pay your house a little visit."

"No!"

"Where's your house keys, Princess?" Hoodie asked, stepping towards her.

Snuffles growled again and Hoodie shot him a warning look that had Snuffles backing up with a small whine.

"Like I'll tell you!" She snapped at Hoodie, who just smiled at her.

"We'll just have to find them then."

Hers eyes widened as Hoodie and Orange-hat came towards her, she struggled more frantically and Missing-tooth tightened his grip till it became painful and she cried out.

Hoodie was just about to touch her when a large black blur jumped on Missing-tooth, knocking him and, unfortunately, her to the ground painfully.

"What the hell?" She heard one of the men say.

She lifted her head up to stare at Snuffles, she was shocked at his violent reaction.

Snuffles stepped towards Missing-tooth, bearing his teeth and growling menacingly, looking more like a wolf then the dog he was.

Orange-hat swung his foot at Snuffles angrily, grunting in annoyance when Snuffles just dodged the foot. "Fuck off, you mangy mutt!"

Missing-tooth cursed and pushed her off of him, standing up clumsily and roughly dragging her up by her arm.

When her arm was pulled painfully she inhaled sharply. "Ah!"

"Shut up." Missing-tooth said, jerking her angrily.

"That hurt, you big brute!" She snapped.

Missing-tooth was about to reply, most likely with an equally angry retort, when Snuffles jumped at him again, causing Missing-tooth to push her away from him so he could back get away from the dog.

She stumbled and hit the ground hard, yelping when her hands scraped against the gravel road.

She looked back to where Snuffles and the men were just in time to get the shock of her life.

Snuffles turned into a man.

She gasped loudly but it was drowned out by the panicked yells of the men.

"Woah!"

"What the hell?"

"Stay away from the girl!" The man said hoarsely.

"Y-you were just a dog!" Orange-hat stuttered, pointing at the man.

"Did you hear me? Leave her alone!" the man growled, sounding like the dog he was supposed to be.

"What?"

"Get out of here!" the man barked, stepping forwards and grasping Missing-tooth's arm, shoving him away from both her and the alley.

The men stared at the man who had been a dog a few seconds ago, paralyzed with shock and fear, before turning around and running away.

"Fuck this shit! This is the last time I'm ever drinking!" she heard Hoodie say before he turned a corner and was out of sight, the other two men quickly following.

She heaved a sigh of relief at the men's absence and slowly shifted her position, so she was on her knees instead of laying on the cold ground. She stared up at the man who used to be Snuffles, taking in his long shaggy hair, thin body and all around filthy appearance.

Her head was really starting to hurt.

"Snuffles?" She said cautiously.

The man turned and looked down at her. "Claudia."

"Snuffles." She said feeling tired and dizzy. "My head hurts..."

Then her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell forwards into a faint.

"Claudia!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And now, four hours later, she was sitting on her bed, listening to the sounds of Snuffles...the dog...the _man _move around downstairs.

What was she supposed to do? Should she call the cops? Tell someone? Scream? Run away? Try to talk to him?

What does one even do when a dog turns into a man? This was all so crazy! Claudia felt like she was in a Disney movie, stuff like this didn't happen in real life. Right?

But Snuffles did turn into a man. She didn't just dream that, Claudia could hear him moving around downstairs, so did that mean that all this time she was really saving a person's life instead of a dog's?

Well, it certainly explained how intelligent he was.

She felt awkward now though. Claudia had complained to Snuffles about her problems. She had told him all about her family, her mom's death, her brother and her father. She didn't mind when she was talking to a dog, it wasn't like he could tell or understand, but now that he was a man? She didn't like that at all.

And besides, what kind of person goes around pretending to be a dog? That was really creepy, actually.

None of this made sense. It was all so confusing!

"Well, as long as we're throwing logic out the window..." Claudia muttered, quietly getting off the bed and moving to the door. "I might as well talk to him."

She quietly walked down the stairs, careful to not make any noise, and walked down the hallway leading to the kitchen and living room.

Claudia flexed her fingers and hands nervously, she really wished she was holding something. Like a pillow, or a teddy bear, or maybe a baseball bat.

When Claudia reached the end of the hallway, she leaned against the wall and peeked around the corner that went into the living room. She tried not to freak out when she saw Snuffles...the man lying on the couch.

What should she do? Was he sleeping, or just resting? Would he even want to talk? Oh God, what if he was going to kill her because she knew his secret?

Claudia licked her lips to moisten them and slowly stepped into the living room, grinning nervously. She watched as the man turned his head to look at her, his grey eyes shining with an unidentifiable emotion. Perhaps it was anger, or fear, or maybe relief? Claudia couldn't tell, and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"Hey." Claudia said quietly, wiggling her fingers at the man.

"Hello." the man said, and Claudia noted that the man had a British accent, something she hadn't noticed earlier when his voice was hoarse.

"Um...so, you can turn into a dog...huh?"

"Maybe you should sit down."

* * *

They were in the kitchen, sitting facing each other on either end of the kitchen table.

"So...your name is Sirius Black."

"Yes."

"And you can turn into a dog at will."

"Yes."

"Because you're an...ani...animag...something."

"Animagus, but yes."

"And since you're an animagus, that means you're a...wizard."

"Yes."

_Well that's not crazy at all. _Claudia thought, rubbing her forehead with her fingers, trying to think with her pounding head. "And you actually expect me to believe that?"

Sirius nodded his head. "Yes."

Claudia plastered on a fake smile. "Why on _Earth _would I believe that?" she said sweetly.

"Because I told you the truth." Sirius said simply.

"Wizards and magic don't exist." Claudia said.

"No, you just thought they didn't exist." Sirius countered.

"Don't you think that if magic did exist, people would know about it?" Claudia asked, starting to massage her temples. _Fuck, this headache._

"We're good at hiding."

"Somehow, I seriously doubt that." Claudia said. "Fine. If you have magic, show me some."

"I...can't." Sirius admitted.

"Oh!" Claudia gasped, feigning surprise. "You can't? Why ever not?"

"I don't have a wand."

"Why don't you have a wand?" Claudia asked impatiently.

"Because they broke it."

Claudia narrowed her eyes. "...Who broke it, exactly?"

"The Aurors." Sirius said, as if he expected her to know what they were.

"What the hell is an auror?"

"They're like the magical version of your people's po...pol...," he broke off, looking like he was thinking of something difficult. "Er, law enforcement, I guess."

Claudia stood up and backed away from the kitchen table they were sitting at. "You're a criminal?" she shrieked.

"I'm innocent!"

"That's what they all say!" she shot back.

"Look. Long story short, one of my friends betrayed my other friends during a magical war and it led to their deaths. Then, he killed a bunch of innocent non-magical folk and blamed it on me and ran away, where he stayed in hiding."

Claudia gave Sirius a searching look, as if she could predict whether or not he would kill her, and slowly sat back down. "So, shouldn't you be in prison then?"

Sirius looked hopeful. "You believe me?"

"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, for now." Claudia said simply, waving her hand to make Sirius continue.

"I escaped."

"That explains your filthy, skinny, state. I guess."

"Hey!"

Claudia made a face at Sirius. "Please. I remember when I first saw you, you looked terrible, and that was when you were a dog!"

Sirius huffed loudly. "Well, it's not like it's my fault."

"I still expect you to prove it to me, somehow." Claudia warned, looking at Sirius expectantly. "I refuse to let a crazy person in my house."

"I'm not crazy!"

"Really? Because so far, you haven't given me any reason to believe you aren't." Claudia said calmly. "I'd like to believe you aren't though." she said. "For all I know this could just be some insane fever dream, or a hallucination! Maybe you have a superpower. Maybe you're a mutant, like X-men!"

"What's X-men?" Sirius asked curiously.

Claudia waved her hand impatiently. "Not important. The fact is, with no proof, how do I know this is real?"

"But I told you-" Sirius protested.

"I know what you told me! But I'm trying to be rational here, or at least as rational as I can be when dealing with crazy stuff." Claudia said. "I want to believe you, I really do! But none of this makes sense! People don't just turn into animals, stuff like that's not real."

"It is in my world."

"Well that's great for your world, but in mine it's not possible!"

Sirius sighed loudly. "What if I could show you something else? Something that would prove that I'm telling the truth?"

Claudia raised an eyebrow. "You have something like that?"

"Yes, but I didn't want to overwhelm you."

"By all means, overwhelm away." Claudia said dismissively. "I would love to be able to trust you, to believe you. It would be cool to know about stuff like magic, to be able to know that magic really exists. That things like that don't just happen in stories."

Sirius stood up. "Follow me."

Claudia looked up at him in surprise. "What?"

"Follow me." Sirius repeated calmly.

"But...where?"

"Just come." Sirius said, grabbing her hand and gently helping her stand up. "I have to show you, right? So come."

Claudia looked at his rough appearance, filthy skin and clothes, and up at his gray eyes filled with sincerity and a little bit of hope. "Okay."

Sirius smiled widely at her positive response, and Claudia couldn't help but notice that he looked younger and less damaged when he did. _He must have laughed a lot when he was younger. _

Sirius led her out of the house and down near Mrs. Hawtrey's house, appearing to have no issue with the fact that it was dark outside, and their only light was provided by the crappy streetlights and the flashlight Claudia had quickly grabbed on their way out.

From there, he led her behind the end of the houses and into a large patch of trees that Claudia could remember climbing with Russell when she was younger, even though her flashlight illuminated them for just a second. Claudia looked around in wonder, taking in the feeling of reminiscence as she walked past the trees, following obediently behind Sirius, as he seemed to be able to see perfectly, despite the darkness.

Suddenly, Sirius stopped, making Claudia bash into him roughly. "Ow! Sorry!" she apologized, backing up away from him.

Claudia heard Sirius mumble something unintelligible that sounded like "It's fine.", and watched him enter a small cave, calling out a name she couldn't hear properly, 'Buck' something.

Claudia backed up when she heard strange noises coming from the cave. She had no idea what made those type of noises, but they were very loud so it was probably large. She cautiously shined the flashlight on the entrance of the cave, warily waiting for Sirius to return.

Sirius carefully stepped out of the cave, squinting his eyes when the flashlight blinded him, and following behind him was the simultaneously the most fascinating and freaky thing Claudia had ever seen. It was some sort of bird-horse thing. It had the head, wings and talons of a bird, it looked kind of like an eagle of some sort, and the body and hindquarters a horse. It's feathers were stormy gray and it had beautiful, if fierce, orange eyes.

The bird-thing, made an upset noise when she flashed the light in it's eyes accidentally and Claudia squeaked in fear. "What is that?" she asked in awe, fighting the urge to reach out and touch it.

Sirius looked extremely proud of himself. "This is Buckbeak, he's a Hippogriff." he said, patting Buckbeak on the neck fondly.

"Hippogriff? So kind of like a Griffin? Except it's a bird-horse instead of a bird-lion?" Claudia asked.

Sirius thought about it for a bit. "Sort of, but they're both completely different species. They aren't related at all."

"This isn't a dream right?" Claudia asked suddenly.

"Does it feel like a dream?"

"No." Claudia admitted. "And I seriously doubt people are advanced enough to create something like _that_," she gestured at Buckbeak. "So you must be telling the truth."

"Yeah, I don't think muggles can create anything like that. It's magic." Sirius said.

"Muggle?"

"The wizarding world's word for non-magic folk." Sirius explained.

Claudia made a face. "I don't think I like that word much." she said. "It doesn't sound right...it sounds almost like a bad word, or a word that means that we're less than people like you."

Sirius looked surprised by this. "Well, I suppose the word might have been invented by purebloods."

"Purebloods?" Claudia asked, feeling confused by all these strange words.

"Wizards who were born from other wizards and witches." Sirius said. "Most of them are stuck up and believe that muggles are beneath them."

"Seriously? For people that have magic, you'd think you'd be advanced enough to get rid of racism."

"Well. We can't all be perfect." Sirius shrugged. "And it's mostly the really old families that believe that muggles are less than magic folk."

Claudia nodded. "Huh." She looked at Buckbeak, who seemed to have gotten bored with just standing around and was attempting to creep away. "So, you were just living in a cave with this thing?"

Sirius looked back at Buckbeak, who stopped creeping away in favor of looking at him like he was expecting an order of some sort. Perhaps he was. "Yeah. He's the reason I escaped from the Aurors and part of the reason why I'm still alive."

Claudia's curiosity got the better of her. "Can I touch him?" she blurted out.

Sirius blinked. "Sure." he grabbed the flashlight from her and pointed it at Buckbeak. "You just have to bow at him, and wait for him to bow back."

Claudia nodded in affirmative. The instructions were weird, but then again, everything about this situation was weird.

She carefully bowed her head, making sure to avert her eyes from the hippogriff, as she had heard that some animals might take that as a challenge, and waited for the animal to bow back.

She huffed out a loud breath when she heard Sirius sigh in relief. "You can pet him now." Sirius said.

Claudia happily did so, marveling at the feeling of the bird's stiff feathers that eventually turned into horsehair. "God, you are so beautiful and amazing." she breathed out in awe, feeling Buckbeak perk up slightly at the praise.

"Enjoying yourself?" Sirius asked her, amused at the fascination.

"Shut up." Claudia huffed. "This is all so new to me, let me enjoy it."

Claudia was stopped from her happy examining of Buckbeak when she heard Sirius's stomach growl. "Have you eaten anything lately?" she asked.

Sirius looked embarrassed. "Uh, no." he admitted.

"I can feed you, if you want. I know most adults don't like relying on the help of kids, but you need help, right?" Claudia said.

"Well I-" Sirius started to say, but Claudia cut him off.

"Do you want food or not? You could even stay at the house for a while, I'm the only one there, after all, you could even bring Buckbeak."

Sirius reluctantly agreed, and Claudia happily led them back to the house.

She showed Sirius the basement which, luckily, they weren't using at all, so there was lots of room for Buckbeak to live in. Buckbeak seemed moderately happy with this arrangement.

Form there, Claudia showed Sirius the two guest rooms the house had, and Sirius picked the one farthest from Claudia's room. Inwardly, Claudia was happy about this, she might trust him about the magic thing, but she was still wary about him. He had been in prison, after all. Even if he was innocent.

Later, after Claudia and Sirius had finished eating, they were sitting in the living room and Claudia was firing off any questions that she might have about the magical world, and Sirius would happily answer them.

"Why do you chase the owls in Mrs. Hawtrey's yard?"

"Because They deliver magical people's mail."

Claudia gaped at him. "Seriously?"

"Yep."

_Well, that explained a lot, especially that one day. _Claudia shuddered at the memory of the owls swarming around her.

"Okay, new question. Why do you turn into a dog? Does it have to be a dog?"

"For me, yes, It has to be a dog. Animagus forms reflect the wizards soul." Sirius explained. "For other people, the animal they would turn into would be different."

Claudia briefly thought about what animal she'd be. Maybe a panther, or a wolf. She knew her mom would have said penguine, as that had been her mom's nickname for her since she always had freezing cold feet as a child.

"Huh." Claudia nodded interestedly. "Do you know any other animagus'?"

Sirius nodded tightly. "Yes. My best friend James, whose murder I was framed for, turned into a stag and my former friend Peter, who was the one who murdered James, turned into a filthy slimy rat." he spat.

_Okay. That was a touchy topic. _Claudia was slightly surprised by the sudden burst of anger from Sirius, he'd seemed so calm before. But then again, who wouldn't be mad while thinking of someone who betrayed and murdered your best friend?

"Wait, I just thought of something." Claudia said suddenly, making Sirius look at her in surprise. "Is it common knowledge that someone's animagus form reflects a person's soul?"

When Sirius nodded at her curiously, Claudia scowled. "Then how could they think you'd betray your best friend?"

"What do you mean?"

"Dogs are very loyal creatures, they stand by their friends and family till the end. The only way they'd turn on their family is if they abused them, which I doubt your best friend would do." Claudia explained. "And yet rats usually are portrayed as cruel, greedy and evil in most books and movies. And it's common knowledge that rats will do anything to survive. They have no sense of loyalty."

Sirius looked at Claudia in shock for a few seconds. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway." he said bitterly. "They didn't know I was an animagus."

"They didn't?"

"No. I turned into one illegally, for a friend for...reasons." he said evasively. "And besides, my family was known for being on the wrong side of the war, I was guilty for being part of that family."

Claudia furrowed her eyebrows. "What does family have to do with anything? Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, y'know, with actual proof."

"I was never given a trial."

"What? They can't do that! It's against the law!" Claudia said aghast.

Sirius shrugged unhappily. "In the wizarding world they can."

Claudia crossed her arms angrily, indignant that people would even risk throwing innocent people in jail. At this day in age, people should know better than to do that, right? "Well, the wizarding world is stupid." she huffed.

Sirius just laughed loudly.

* * *

**Well, that's that, I guess?**

**Did you like it?**

**See you next chapter!**

**~mitsuki9911~**


	5. Authors Note

Well, I'm sorry but this story is going on Hiatus.

I've just been really unmotivated about this story lately and I just can't get anything written. I have the story all planned out, but no words will come.

It sucks that I have to do this and I feel like a failure, but I'd rather put it on hiatus then type out crappy chapters that are obviously forced.

I'm sorry if this pisses people off, though I doubt there's many, but I just can't do it right now.

I can't say when it'll come of hiatus, but when it does I'll probably be posting re-written chapters and the rest of the story.

For now I'm gonna finish up my Walking Dead story and start posting stories I have the proper motivation for. When I get back to this story, hopefully my writing will be improved.

I'll be deleting this note in a few days because there's apparently some sort of rule against posting authors notes...

Sorry, :(

~mitsuki9911~


End file.
